Well here's another opportunity to quote from WONDERBOYS...
Spaces added for readability...The narrator talking about what a great houseman the Whale was...pp. 99-100...
"The Whale brought out the Keno board every once in a while. He had to put it away again once the excitement got so heated that the other tables went unused. When that Keno board came out, you had to play or watch, it was that exciting.
The board was antique wood and fit perfectly under the rails at the head of the table. There were holes in the board where balls could rest. The slots were numbered, and the board had a little ramp to allow balls to roll up on the board and skitter around until they found a home or couldn't stick and rolled back down.
The perfect ring game. Play begins with the opening player smashing the rack and hoping balls come up table onto the board. Players then take turns, one shot at a time whether any balls stick to the board or not. When a ball lands on a circle, you add the number on the ball to the number of the hole and those points are yours. Sixty-two points wins the game. Those points you own are always precarious, because if a player knocks your ball out of its hole, that ball then belongs to him, if it sticks in another hole, that is.
Another winner is to put a ball in the same numbered hole, like if the four ball lands on the four hole. Some holes are wild, the double Keno hole has two stars on it and pays double stakes. There are two doubles, one left, one right, and one triple Keno in the center of the board, with three stars.
Nobody talked while you were stroking the cue ball, but once contact was made, the opposition loudly coaxed your ball to “swim”, to wobble from hole to hole and skid off the board. If you didn't play defense on the following player, you were roundly booed and harassed. Those Keno games were more fun than Las Vegas."
